Hanabi
by Feather Ice
Summary: Sometimes Tsuna can't figure out why people have any faith in him at all. Gokudera feelings are pretty much identical. When they both come through, though, the results are nothing short of spectacular.


A/N: First of all, the title means 'Fireworks' in Japanese romanji. Secondly, I have yet again decided to keep the Japanese honorifics for my Reborn! fics. Deal with it. The story is fairly amusing and purely platonic. I hope it doesn't bore you all out of your minds. I hate math as well and sympathize with Tsuna.

Hanabi

"It's no use," Tsuna sighed, leaning back from the table with a groan, and wishing he didn't have company over so he would be free to bang his head against the furniture in peace. Or tear the offending math paper to shreds in a whirl of vengeance. If he could withstand the guilt, that is. "I just don't get it!"

"Judaime…"

The worst part was he didn't even have to look over at Gokudera-kun to know he was wearing that poor, kicked puppy It's All My Fault That the Tenth Is Incurably Stupid look on his face that promised either psychotic mafia training or Gokudera-kun trying to commit suicide with one of his explosives again. Tsuna peeked at Gokudera-kun's face out of the corner of his eye and blanched.

No, he definitely could not withstand the guilt.

"It's not your fault," Tsuna promised, figuring he should at least make the attempt as he watched Gokudera-kun racking his brain in an attempt to communicate with someone whose IQ was at least fifty points below his own. "And you don't have to do this. I don't mind if I fail the test. Or get kicked out of school. Not at all. Ha ha ha."

Tsuna proceeded to laugh and wonder why exactly he was laughing. He probably should have slept at some point this weekend. He'd wanted to sleep at some point this weekend. But every time he even thought about shutting his eyes, Reborn showed up around the corner with a very nasty glint in his eye, a bomb in hand, and proceeded to ask Tsuna if he was ready for his 'practice test' yet.

No, Tsuna did not feel ready for his 'practice test', thank you very much.

"A-are you alright, Judaime?" Gokudera-kun asked, looking stricken as he watched his boss slowly lose his mind. Tsuna's laughter sounded like he'd been possessed. Gokudera-kun sincerely hoped not. His exorcism skills still needed quite a bit of polishing. "Well…" He thought fast. "Well, even if you do get expelled, we, your family, will follow you to your new school to back you up!"

"…I appreciate the sentiment," Tsuna mumbled as his wheezing laughter died away. "But I'm pretty sure everyone else has things they want to do at Nanimori. Just because I'm stupid doesn't mean that they shouldn't get the fullest education possible…"

Gokudera-kun got that look on his face that said Oh, We'll Just See About That and probably meant that he hadn't made good on his promise to not bring dynamite into the house anymore. His heart burned to hear the Judaime disparaging himself as such. If it was anyone but the Judaime, he'd never have let them get away with such insolence. Especially the baseball idiot. That baseball idiot—

"I'm sorry, Judaime," he gasped, shocked by his own stupidity. Tsuna glanced up from where he was wallowing in self-pity in time to see Gokudera-kun bow down low before him, looking deeply contrite. "It's my fault! For allowing that baseball idiot to leave… Forgive me, Judaime!"

Mystified, Tsuna peered down at Gokudera-kun for a long, considering moment, before letting out a perplexed, "eh?"

Gokudera-kun's head snapped back up. "You do better when that idiot is here to assist you! Without someone to bolster your confidence by being truly stupid—"

Tsuna wept within. Gokudera-kun could badmouth Yamamoto-kun all he liked, but that didn't change the fact that Yamamoto-kun was not the one being faced with expulsion unless he passed the upcoming math test. Yamamoto-kun had been studying with them in hopes of passing the math test, but he'd left for his baseball game hours ago and probably wouldn't be back. Tsuna didn't blame him. Gokudera-kun had yet to realize he was fighting a truly uphill battle.

"—And, if you like, I could go and fetch you back his left ear," Gokudera-kun finished whatever rant he had digressed into and looked at Tsuna intently. Tsuna, who didn't have any idea to whom Gokudera-kun was referring and had no desire whatsoever for anyone's ear under any circumstances, shuddered discreetly and tried to hide behind a sheet of notebook paper.

"Let's just get back to this," he groaned, smacking himself in the forehead in hopes of jarring some of his brain cells to life. It hurt, he whimpered, and now Gokudera-kun was looking at him funny, which was just great. Tsuna resisted the urge to cry. "Number four," he said for the seventh time that afternoon. "H-how do you solve it again?"

At once Gokudera-kun had launched into another of his long-winded, overly complicated explanations. They got even more in-depth every time, as Gokudera-kun tried to compensate for Tsuna's confusion in the absolute worst way possible. Tsuna followed the first two minutes probably because he had heard this phrased in various forms all day long, and then dropped his head against the table, moaning. _I'm going to fail, get kicked out, get killed by Mom, and then get killed by Reborn, _Tsuna thought listlessly from where he stared at well-polished oak. _And then, I'm going to get arrested because Gokudera-kun will have killed someone for their ear. And then they'll kill me too._

'They' was probably the ambiguous force that had had it out for Tsuna since the day he was born. Tsuna preferred to leave them unnamed. He doubted much solace would be drawn from concrete manifestations of the fact that the world hated him.

"I apologize, Judaime," Gokudera-kun fretted above him. "My teaching is inadequate. Please tell me what you don't understand."

"Everything," wailed Tsuna, and recoiled from the table when something hit it and sent a shockwave up his cheek. He stared at Gokudera-kun, who had apparently just slammed his fist into Tsuna's innocent desk, and was now looking deeply into Tsuna's eyes in such a way that Tsuna felt like running wouldn't be a very good idea because that would only make Gokudera-kun chase him.

"You can do this," Gokudera-kun said firmly, and did not lift his hand from where it had probably just dented Tsuna's totally innocent writing desk—Mom would be wondering about _that_ later. "I _believe in you_, Judaime! Please have faith in yourself." Tsuna, trying and failing to recall a time in which Gokudera-kun had scolded him, wondered how close Gokudera-kun was to finally snapping. He nodded slowly, cautiously, hoping Gokudera-kun wouldn't go for his throat when it happened, and Gokudera-kun brightened, lifting his fist off—yep, there was that dent—and sliding his glasses back into place. "Then, please, tell me how I can be of service to you, Jyuudaime!"

"Pretend you're explaining it to a monkey," Tsuna suggested, and then shook his head. "No, a bug. A Japanese-speaking bug," he added as Gokudera-kun's mouth opened. "But Japanese is the only thing in the world it understands."

"Is the Jyuudaime comparing himself to a **bug**?" Gokudera-kun asked with a look on his face that had often made grown men quake in their boots. His voice sounded like death itself. Tsuna froze like a deer in the headlights.

"N…no?"

Yes, he absolutely was. Thank God that Gokudera-kun was an idiot.

"If you're certain," Gokudera-kun agreed, looking unsure. "Very well then… The two angles x and y are complements." Tsuna nodded, with Gokudera-kun thus far. "Which means that they add up to 180 degrees." Tsuna nodded again. "And the angle opposite to x has to be equal to x."

"Why?" Asked Tsuna, frowning. Tsuna thought it was a fair question. The formulas would be easier to remember if he knew why they worked. This was probably his greatest setback in math, because Tsuna still had that childish belief that deep down, geometry was supposed to make sense. Gokudera-kun's eyes started to glow and Tsuna watched with a growing sense of pity as Gokudera-kun visibly restrained himself from bursting into another long-winded discussion on the properties of triangles and the art that was trigonometry. It was disturbingly like watching Lambo try to calm himself down. All and all, another very uphill battle.

"Because…" Gokudera-kun ground out, "Line m, over here… also forms 180 degrees with x… And then th-this angle is its complement… Which… which means angle z is equivalent to angle x!"

Tsuna nodded slowly, staring at his paper with the same look of abject concentration Gokudera-kun was focusing upon him, willing him to comprehend the force that was Junior High geometry by sheer force of will. Tsuna was willing the little numbers and symbols dotting his page to take the shape of something decipherable. Slowly but surely… Could it be…? Was this the answer they'd been working on…?

Tsuna looked up, meeting Gokudera-kun's stare. "So, it's 30 degrees?"

Gokudera-kun seemed to wince and smile at once, which was a sight to behold on Gokudera-kun. It would have been a sight to behold on anyone. Gokudera-kun's face just made it better. "No, that's y." _But that's much closer than last time, Jyuudaime!_ "Try again."

Tsuna looked momentarily stumped and then looked up at Gokudera-kun in utter despair. "So, it's 180 degrees?"

Gokudera-kun's eye twitched. "That would be impossible, Judaime…"

"I'm sorry," Tsuna said, withering.

"No, no, no!" Gokudera-kun exclaimed, instantly repentant. "I am at fault! Please don't apologize Jyuudaime, I—" Gokudera broke off, and then, before Tsuna's hazy line of vision, suddenly looked thoughtful. He sat back down, having leapt up in his haste to apologize to his boss, and started scribbling on a loose sheet of paper. He then passed the paper over to his boss. "…What do you see here?"

Tsuna inspected the paper and then looked up with, if it was possible, an even more miserable facial expression. He appeared to be starting to melt. Gokudera-kun was about to start looking for something with which to cool down his boss, when Tsuna sighed, "It's a crosshair, isn't it."

"Yeah," Gokudera-kun nodded, and pointed out the edges. "See the numbers?" When Tsuna reluctantly admitted that he did, Gokudera-kun went on, "They correspond…" a pause to make sure Tsuna's eyes hadn't glazed over yet, "…with the angles of geometry. Not exactly," he added hastily as Tsuna's eyes got much larger and Gokudera-kun caught sight of the hole was digging for himself. "But it's close. And these lines, m and l... They're like…" Gokudera-kun cast his eyes around the room for inspiration. The room failed him. He thought bigger. "A sidewalk in view of your location and the path your target is moving in, assuming he walks in a straight line."

Tsuna froze, able to picture this very well. And the complete and utter terror he had running away from a cackling Reborn waving Leon around and threatening to shoot out Tsuna's ankles if he didn't come up with a better technique for running away. Ah, it seemed like only yesterday… And so it probably was. "Go on," Tsuna said in a low voice, picturing the image quite well.

"The target is crossing the sidewalk into the street," Gokudera-kun continued, equally unaware that his voice had also dropped and the two of them now sounded more like they were planning on ambushing the math teacher rather than studying for his test. "Where he crosses the sidewalk is point A. You've got the crosshair on him. From the where he was before he crossed the sidewalk to where he was after he crossed it is four tick marks."

"180 degrees," Tsuna remarked, having suddenly remembered that a circle had 360 degrees and that as there were eight tick marks in Gokudera-kun's hastily drawn crosshair, 180 of them filled out the line of the target.

"The sidewalk is the same. Four tick marks." Gokudera-kun went on, eyes fixed on some distant (and totally imaginary) figure. "There are four spaces made in between the sidewalk and the way your target is walking. Four ways for your hit to miss." Tsuna nodded. More if there were obstacles. God, his life sucked. "On the left side, closest to the street, you've got two and a half tick marks. 135 degrees. How many are left on the left side of the target's path?"

"One and half," Tsuna answered, still not really thinking about it. "Um. 45 degrees. If I go that way, it's easier to get the shot."

Gokudera-kun nodded, not sure why the Jyuudaime was using the first person to refer to the imaginary person they were going to kill, but completely unwilling to jerk him out of his logical mindset. "If it's towards the street and on the right, how many marks are left?

"45 again," Tsuna murmured, licking his lips. "Because it's on the same side of the sidewalk. Go for the wider space. The less straight lines around you, the harder it is to get a clear shot. Left and away from the sidewalk, that's my best bet."

"How many degrees there?" Asked Gokudera-kun, holding his breath in anticipation.

"45," breathed Tsuna, looking like he was about to make a break for it. Gokudera-kun seized his hand before he could, clutching it joyfully as he beamed at his boss.

"Yes!" He cried, smile dazzling. "Exactly! You got it!" Tsuna blinked at Gokudera-kun, seeming to realize that they were in his room and he was not, in fact, being abused by Reborn again. There was no gun trained on him. There were lots of familiar places to hide even if there were. And Gokudera-kun. He was useful, as long as he didn't try to act as a meat shield… again.

Tsuna sort of thought that Gokudera-kun had self-esteem issues.

"I… did…?" He asked, apparently unsure as to whether his ears were deceiving him or not. Gokudera-kun grinned triumphantly in response, releasing the Judaime's hand because no matter how kind the Judaime was it was improper to invade his personal space so freely. He hadn't been able to contain his outburst, though. He was just so happy. He finally knew how to help his boss! He finally knew how to relate math problems to him! And his wonderful, perfect Jyuudaime was going to pass the math test and stick it to that bastard teacher and prove to the world just how awesome he really was!

Secretly, Gokudera-kun couldn't help but be pleased for other reasons entirely. He'd had his fair share of difficulties with math as well early on in his schooling. This practical visualization method had been the exact same way a five year-old Gokudera-kun had used to get his head around fundamental concepts. The best part was applying it to the field. Gokudera-kun would never forget the first time he hit his target with a perfect eighty degree arc and knew—_knew_—that he was going to serve as an elite Vongola family member…

Gokudera-kun quickly decided against telling this to Tsuna, who was very much not five years-old and would probably take it the wrong way. Nevertheless, he was proud to share something with his excellent Jyuudaime.

Tsuna smiled slowly, laughing just a little bit. He couldn't help but be embarrassed that he'd zoned out like that. But he also couldn't help smiling. Maybe it wasn't entirely impossible to pass this test…

"OK!" Gokudera-kun shouted, throwing his fist into the air. "Let's try the next one! OK, let's see… Ah! That idiot cow is running away from me as fast as he can. But he can only run 15 miles per hour while I can reach a velocity 35 miles per hour…"

Hours later, and one rather anticlimactic 'practice test' (a real one, actually) with Reborn and Tsuna's studying session was, for better or worse, complete. It was also well past midnight. Gokudera-kun had spent the last fifteen minutes arguing with Tsuna about how in his opinion it was completely unprecedented for a subordinate to take advantage of his boss's hospitality to such an extent as to presume to sleep in his room and how in Tsuna's opinion everyone else did it anyway and Gokudera-kun would save himself a lot of trouble if he just shut up and chose whether he wanted the bed or a futon. Tsuna had actually won that argument, somehow, and Gokudera-kun had predictably accepted only the futon and tried to refuse even a pillow until Tsuna threw it at him. Now Tsuna was in the bathroom, simultaneously brushing his teeth and looking to see if there was a spare toothbrush Gokudera-kun could use without contracting any rare oral diseases.

"Hey, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna called, wandering back into his room with a considerably mintier outlook on life. "I can't find another toothbrush, so if you want to use—" He broke off abruptly, surprised at the picture before him. Gokudera-kun had shoved his futon as far away from Tsuna's bed and Reborn's hammock as he could possibly manage, cramming it into a little corner that was probably filled with dust, and generally trying to make it as small and insignificant as possible. This was not unusual to Tsuna, who had come to the conclusion that the mafia life had snapped poor Gokudera-kun's sanity like a twig underfoot and that it really wasn't his friend's fault. What was surprising was that instead of being wide awake to apologize profusely for his rudeness, inconsiderateness, and general audacity to impose upon the almighty Lord Jyuudaime for about the thousandth time that afternoon, Gokudera-kun was in total disarray and fast asleep. He hadn't even taken his socks off. Not only that, he hadn't even gotten properly under the futon. In fact, it looked a little bit like Gokudera-kun had sat down on it and then promptly passed out.

Tsuna's first thought was that Bianchi-san must be nearby, and then it occurred to him that Gokudera-kun had to be every bit as exhausted as he was. Gokudera-kun stayed awake for the whole two days straight to try and teach Tsuna the (previously) impossible. And he'd been pushing himself to the limit trying to do it, giving it his absolute all with lots of energy, because that was just how Gokudera-kun did things. In the end, hadn't it been Gokudera-kun who'd done most of the work too? Yeah, Tsuna had figured out the answer, but… He hated to admit it, but without Gokudera-kun—and maybe Reborn and Yamamoto-san as well—he'd never have figured out the problems.

Especially not without Gokudera-kun.

Tsuna found his mouth twitching into a smile of its own volition and for a moment he stood there smiling fondly at his friend, got embarrassed about acting like Haru-chan, and quickly squashed the smile. Instead he tiptoed over to where Gokudera-kun lay, and started tugging the blanket out from under him so that at least Gokudera-kun wouldn't catch cold for all of his troubles. When Gokudera-kun sprang back to life and practically rocketed to his feet, Tsuna had to grudgingly admit that Reborn's training also seemed to be paying off, because he escaped with both his life and his jaw intact, and Gokudera-kun seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he'd nearly smashed his boss's face in with the top of his skull.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, rubbing at his eyes furiously. "I must have dozed off... How may I be of service to you…" He actually yawned then, and looked stricken, clapping his hands over his mouth. "_Ah!_ Judaime, I mean no disrespect—"

Tsuna had been really and truly trying his best not to laugh, and now he failed, burying his face in his hands to snicker quietly. Gokudera-kun had frozen in mid-apology and now seemed torn between exalting the fact that the Jyuudaime was laughing and picking his apology up where he left off. Tsuna seized the opportunity to successfully pull the blanket out from under Gokudera-kun and offer it to him. "You should probably go to sleep _under_ this," Tsuna advised, and dimly realized that he was teasing Gokudera-kun. _Gokudera-kun._ He marveled at his own courage. He wondered if he was going to die. Probably. "Unless that's some new kind of mafia training."

"That's… I…" Gokudera-kun seemed to be just as thrown as Tsuna was by this new development, and Tsuna watched with amazement as Gokudera-kun slowly turned red. "That is. Um. D-Does the Jyuudaime practice this training?"

"No way," Tsuna informed him, and then found himself fidgeting. "Uh, you know, Gokudera-kun, if you need anything, you can borrow it. Mom keeps tons of extra stuff around and I've even got pajamas you might—" Seriously emphasizing that 'might' of course, because Tsuna fully acknowledged the fact that he was a midget "—be able to fit into…" He could see exactly where Gokudera-kun's mind was going and hurried to add, "And it's completely fine because I owe you! So you don't have to get upset!"

Gokudera-kun swayed where he stood, and for a moment Tsuna thought he was going to pass out again. Gokudera-kun didn't look like he was too sure of whether or not he was awake in the first place. "How could you owe me?" He demanded bluntly, as though the fact that he was always trying to get himself killed to save Tsuna from yet another absurd situation or the fact that he was always the first to stand up for him counted for nothing in the world of all things mafia. He laughed as though this was a particularly amusing joke. "Oh! I get it! The Jyuudaime is so funny! A very good joke!"

"I'm serious!" Tsuna protested, crossing his arms. "You didn't have to help me study and I… didn't… really… want you to. But you did anyway and I'm—I'm glad, OK? I wouldn't even have a chance of passing if you hadn't done all of this. So I definitely owe you for that."

Gokudera-kun smiled warmly after a beat, crossing his arms as well. "I'm honored, Jyuudaime," he declared. "But I was simply doing my duty as a member of the Vongola family. I was glad to be of assistance. You don't owe me _anything_."

"I'm grateful anyway!" Tsuna retorted, wondering why he was getting so annoyed about this and where the disturbing urge to leap at Gokudera-kun, wrap his hands around his throat, and force him to accept his thanks was coming from. Probably lack of sleep. He really hoped it was just lack of sleep. He dove into his bed to reinforce the fact, pulling the covers nearly over his head. "And I'm not the Vongola family boss! We're friends, OK? _Friends!_"

At this point Reborn told them both in a voice that left no room for argument to shut up or risk permanent facial disfiguration, and pretty much the minute Tsuna's mouth stopped moving he was fast asleep and no longer found Gokudera-kun's ability to pass out on the floor quite as unusual.

Tsuna woke up the next morning to the realization that at some point during the night Gokudera-kun had snuck out of his room, unable to withstand breaking the weird mafia code of conduct that made him act like a crazy person. Tsuna sighed, and hoped that he'd at least gotten _some_ sleep before he'd run off to do just whatever it was Gokudera-kun did at ungodly times of night. He worried a little bit too, because even if it was Gokudera-kun, walking around at night really wasn't a safe thing to do, but because it **was** Gokudera-kun, he didn't worry that much. Instead he focused on the math test. Tsuna would simply never forgive himself if he wasted Gokudera's shameless slave labor, especially since Gokudera-kun had seemed to developed a phobia of getting thanked by him. Besides, for maybe the first time since the first grade Tsuna was filled with something akin to hope and the belief that if he tried, prayed, and got decently lucky, he might do well.

After the test the rest of the school day passed mostly as a colorless blur. Gokudera-kun was indeed in class, and pretended that he'd left just before Tsuna had woken up and not in the middle of the night like some kind of cat burglar. He was plainly lying. Yamamoto-kun took one look at Tsuna and wanted to know if they were supposed to be acting like zombies now, and Tsuna explained his situation. Yamamoto-kun explained in a very knowledgeable tone of voice that this sensation was what was known as a crash, and happened when you played too many games of baseball in a row fueled by nothing but sugar and caffeine. Or, in Tsuna's case, when you stayed up two days straight fueled by nothing but terror of the people surrounding you… and yes, Tsuna admitted grudgingly, maybe a teensy-tiny bit of not wanting to let them down had also done some fueling.

Yamamoto-kun encouraged him to sleep it off. Tsuna promised that was exactly what he intended to, as soon as he got his score back and discovered whether or not he was going to be expelled.

"Well," Yamamoto-kun said, slapping him on the back as the bell rang. "I don't think you have to worry about that, Tsuna."

"What do you mean?" Tsuna asked, confused. Yamamoto-kun grinned at him.

"It's just a feeling, but I bet you did really well," he said. "Because you're Tsuna!"

"Huh?" Tsuna grimaced. "It's kind of the opposite, really…" Yamamoto-kun laughed at that, and Tsuna had no idea why. Sometimes he just didn't get Yamamoto-kun.

"Eighty-seven," said the teacher. Tsuna blinked at him.

"Ah, excuse me," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "I meant my test…"

"You got an eighty-seven," the teacher repeated slowly, a bit more aware than the rest of the world Tsuna was faced with that he was talking to an idiot. He handed back the paper to Tsuna, who hastily closed his gaping mouth to accept it. It looked like his handwriting, but it was almost entirely devoid of red. There was a good bit at the bottom, but aside from that, Tsuna couldn't remember ever getting a paper back with so much… white. There was his name. There was the eighty-seven. His head hurt.

"Really?" He asked, dumbfounded, and got glared at.

"I have papers to grade," the teacher informed him. "Go!"

Tsuna went.

He was still staring in total confusion at what just _had_ to be a mislabeled sheet of paper when he heard his name and looked up. The first person he saw was Gokudera-kun, and his mouth automatically opened to explain that he'd been given the wrong paper and hadn't really passed, but Gokudera-kun ignored him, and just grinned. Tsuna stared at that too, waiting for it to dissolve into a string of apologies that had nothing to do with Gokudera-kun and everything to do with Tsuna being incompetent, but it never came. After a moment Tsuna's mouth closed and he found himself smiling back. Yeah, he'd actually passed. Another disaster avoided, thanks to his right hand man.

_Thanks, Gokudera-kun._

He became aware of the fact that there were other people there a few seconds later and his smile widened as his eyes swept over them. It seemed like everyone was there, all the people he counted on and really wasn't used to not feeling like an idiot in front of. He wondered why they were all gathered, and almost thought that this was some kind of cruel dream that would dissolve into the harshness of reality before he caught sight of Gokudera-kun's grin and thought that it probably wasn't a dream after all. He didn't dream of anything that scary.

"Congratulations, Tsuna," Yamamoto-kun, who Tsuna was beginning to think was psychic, called out.

"I'm glad you're staying here," Kyoto-chan added, smiling sweetly.

"Haru is glad too!" Haru-chan added, appearing from, Tsuna swore, absolutely nowhere.

"I heard your studying was extreme!" Ryohei-san remarked, seemingly more pleased about this than anything else. "It pays off! Live extremely!"

"Tsuna-san is ranked highly among the mafia who work hard when it counts!" Added Yuuta brightly.

"You people are disturbing the peace at my school," Hibari-san said. "Get out."

"Lambo wants cake!" Announced Lambo. "Mama made cake! Let's go! Lambo wants cake!"

"Ipin wants Lambo to stop being rude!" The foreign girl retorted.

"Well done," Reborn said clearly, a smile in his voice, although from where, Tsuna had no idea.

Gokudera-kun, for his part, just grinned even wider, and produced explosives from somewhere in his clothes. Tsuna yelped as they were flung into the air, preparing to run for his life. The angle was off, though, and he watched them vaulting up and up and up—

"Good arm," Yamamoto-kun remarked, impressed. "Ever thought about baseball?"

"Or boxing?" Ryohei-san broke in, never one to be left out.

"Not on your life," snarled Gokudera-kun, and then suddenly everyone was quiet, watching the fireworks go off, filling the sky above the school with colors and light. Tsuna's jaw dropped again. Huge starbursts exploded over the roof with bangs that could probably be heard for miles. Everywhere people were sticking their heads out windows, trying to see what was going on. Red and gold and green—and in one corner a very strict adherence to the Nanimori school colors. Probably a concession to Hibari-san so he wouldn't kill them all. For the moment Tsuna put aside his questions over whether or not this was legal and how much trouble he had just gotten into, and instead let himself be bathed in what felt a lot like the light of victory. For the moment, he didn't feel so much like No-Good Tsuna.

"Hey!" He made his way over to Gokudera-kun, who was regarding the mayhem with the eyes of a proud parent. Gokudera-kun looked over at him instantly, thrilled to have the attention of the Jyuudaime. Tsuna leaned close, shouting to be heard over the fireworks. "Thank you, Gokudera-kun!"

Apparently he wasn't the only one who felt like nothing was impossible, because for once Gokudera-kun laughed and shouted back,

"You're welcome!"


End file.
